Archive - February 2014

1
Review of Paradise in Front of Me by Kevin G. Finch (Honduras 2004-06)
2
Remarks of Carrie Hessler-Radelet Acting Director, Peace Corps "Honoring Peace Corps Week in the 21st Century" National Press Club, Washington, D.C.
3
A Writer Writes: My Philomena Story
4
Review 85 Days in Cuba by Branon Valentine (Jamaica 2000-04 & Panama 2006-09)
5
Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) Appearing at the Berkshire Festival of Woman Writers
6
Peace Corps Week Celebrates Volunteers' Contributions at Home and Abroad for Peace Corps' 53rd Anniversary
7
Acting Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet To Speak at National Press Club
8
Fran Hopkins Irwin and Will Irwin publish The Early Years of Peace Corps in Afghanistan with Peace Corps Writers
9
Peace Corps Ukraine Volunteers Evacuated Safely
10
Talking With Frances Stone (Philippines 1971-73) author of Through the Eyes of My Children
11
Review of Wanderlust Satisfied by Kay Gillies Dixon (Colombia 1962-64)
12
Review: I Loved You More by Tom Spanbauer (Kenya 1969-71)
13
Talking with Kevin Finch (Honduras 2004-06) Author of Paradise in Front of Me
14
The Grownup Train by Chris Honore’ (Colombia 1967-69)
15
The Peace Corps–#4 of 29 (Small Agencies) Best Place to Work in Government

Review of Paradise in Front of Me by Kevin G. Finch (Honduras 2004-06)

Paradise in Front of Me – Realizing Life’s Beauty in an Unexpected Place by Kevin G. Finch (Honduras 2004–06) Peace Corps Writers $$12.95 (paperback), $4.95 (Kindle) 240 pages 2014 Reviewed by Ben East (Malawi 1996–98) The recurring image in Kevin G. Finch’s Paradise in Front of Me is that of an impoverished Honduran child looking up at a locked schoolhouse door. Shut out again. The author and the residents of El Paraíso repeatedly find their plans scuttled: by naked madmen in San Juan, cancelled classes in Monte Cristo, failed transportation to Cuyalí, striking teachers, impassable rivers, traveling gringo evangelicals . . . there’s no end to the obstacles in this Honduran state near the border with Nicaragua. “The teachers are on strike,” Finch writes towards the end, “and another day is wasted in the future of Honduras.  The child blinks his eyes to bat away the drops of rain running down from . . .

Read More

Remarks of Carrie Hessler-Radelet Acting Director, Peace Corps "Honoring Peace Corps Week in the 21st Century" National Press Club, Washington, D.C.

From The Peace Corps Press Office Remarks of Carrie Hessler-Radelet Acting Director, Peace Corps “Honoring Peace Corps Week in the 21st Century” National Press Club, Washington, D.C. AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY February 27, 2014 I’m honored to join you all today in celebrating Peace Corps Week, which commemorates the anniversary of our founding. Each year, during this week, the Peace Corps community comes together across the nation, and around the world, to renew our commitment to service. It’s great to be here at the National Press Club. Let me tell you what the press had to say about Peace Corps in our early days. In 1961, TIME magazine described the first groups of Volunteers in this way: “Peace Corps Volunteers are patriotic and adventuresome….with the patience of Job, the perseverance of a Saint, and the digestive system of an Ostrich.” Personally, I’m not quite sure what it means to have . . .

Read More

A Writer Writes: My Philomena Story

A Writer Writes My Philomena by Tony Gambino (Zaire 1979-82) [Tony Gambino taught  TEFL for one year in a rural high school and then spent two years teaching at the branch of the Zairian National University in Kisangani. In 2001 he returned to the Congo as the Mission Director for USAID. He is sure that he is one of a very small number of RPCVs who returned to serve as USAID Mission Director in their country of service. (Many RPCVs have become USAID Mission Directors, but didn’t do so in their country of service.) Today he is a consultant working on international issues and lives in the Washington, D.C., area. This essay by Tony appeared on February 25, 2014 on the website Slate. It is republished by Tony’s permission. It is the story of one son’s search for his biological mother.] Tony and his biological mother, Dorothy The story of Philomena Lee and . . .

Read More

Review 85 Days in Cuba by Branon Valentine (Jamaica 2000-04 & Panama 2006-09)

85 Days in Cuba: A True Story about Friendship and Struggle Brandon Valentine (Jamaica 2000–04, Panamá 2006–09) iUniverse $17.96 (paperback); $3.99 (Kindle) 264 pages 2006 Reviewed by Bob Arias (Colombia 1964-66) I was asked to read this book by the author in 2009 . . . and I did not. Bummer, the message was clear then as it is now! Friendship and loyalty to those around you are essential to who we are . . . as Brandon tells us in his “trip” to the island nation of Cuba . . . or was this trip just to be with his best friend, Carlos and his family in Cuba? Quien sabe! Brandon had spent three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Jamaica from 2000 to 2004 in a very poor section of Kingston teaching . . . and his neighbor was Carlos from Cuba. (An interesting note, Walt and Linda are Brandon’s parents, and they were Volunteers . . .

Read More

Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) Appearing at the Berkshire Festival of Woman Writers

Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) will be appearing at the Berkshire Festival of Woman Writers in a panel discussion entitled Balancing the Personal and the Political with writers Carol Ascher and Laurie Lisle, taking place on Thursday, March 6, 2014 at the Kirpalu Center for Yoga and Health, Route 183, Lenox, MA, 7PM. Seating is limited, pre-registration required.  Please call 866-200-5203

Read More

Peace Corps Week Celebrates Volunteers' Contributions at Home and Abroad for Peace Corps' 53rd Anniversary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Press Office, 202.692.2230 Peace Corps Week Celebrates Volunteers’ Contributions at Home and Abroad for Peace Corps’ 53rd Anniversary WASHINGTON, D.C., February 24, 2014 – Ahead of the Peace Corps’ 53rd anniversary on March 1, the agency today kicks off Peace Corps Week to celebrate the contributions of the Peace Corps community both at home and abroad and highlight the importance of service in the 21st century. Through Saturday, March 1, Peace Corps Acting Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet and current and returned Peace Corps volunteers will participate in recruitment events, service projects and networking activities taking place across the country. “Peace Corps Week is about sharing the volunteer experience and the incredible cultural exchange that results from Peace Corps service,” Hessler-Radelet said. “I encourage both current and returned volunteers to participate in Peace Corps Week to share the world with their local communities and bring Peace Corps service to life.” Hessler-Radelet will participate . . .

Read More

Acting Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet To Speak at National Press Club

[If you are in the D.C. Area email the press office at the Peace Corps and tell them you are covering the event for our website. Take photos.] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014 Peace Corps Acting Director to Speak at the National Press Club on Peace Corps in the 21st Century Remarks Also Commemorate Peace Corps Week and the Agency’s 53rd Anniversary WASHINGTON, D.C. – Peace Corps Acting Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet will deliver remarks at the National Press Club on the Peace Corps in the 21st century on Thursday, February 27 at 1:30 pm. Hessler-Radelet will discuss how Peace Corps reforms and policies are bridging its founding ideals with innovative solutions to the most pressing modern challenges. Peace Corps volunteers work toward sustainable change in the farthest corners of the world and return home with cross-cultural, leadership and language skills that strengthen international ties and increase our country’s . . .

Read More

Fran Hopkins Irwin and Will Irwin publish The Early Years of Peace Corps in Afghanistan with Peace Corps Writers

This month Frances Hopkins Irwin (Afghanistan 1964–67) and Will A. Irwin (Afghanistan 1966–67) published The Early Years of Peace Corps in Afghanistan: A Promising Time with Peace Corps Writers. Here’s what they say about their book: The Peace Corps in Afghanistan The first four years of Peace Corps in Afghanistan was a promising time. Nine Volunteers, perhaps the smallest Peace Corps program around the world, arrived in 1962. They were greeted with skepticism and all placed in Kabul. What skills could they contribute? Wouldn’t their presence cause trouble in this country bordering the Soviet Union? The Early Years tells how within a year the five teachers, three nurses, and a mechanic had demonstrated their skills, how they and the following Volunteers connected with the Afghan community through jazz, folk music, and basketball and used sawdust stoves to avoid paying for oil. By 1966, over 200 Peace Corps Volunteers were serving . . .

Read More

Peace Corps Ukraine Volunteers Evacuated Safely

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 24, 2014 – The Peace Corps today announced that all Peace Corps Ukraine volunteers are safe and accounted for, and have been successfully evacuated out of the country.  The agency will continue to assess the safety and security climate in Ukraine.  And while the Peace Corps hopes volunteers can return, the safety and security of its volunteers are the agency’s top priority. Over 200 Peace Corps Ukraine volunteers were working in the areas of education and youth and community development.  Volunteers will participate in a transition conference this week.  Since the program was established in 1992, over 2,740 Peace Corps volunteers have served in Ukraine.

Read More

Talking With Frances Stone (Philippines 1971-73) author of Through the Eyes of My Children

Frances, you were part of the short-lived Peace Corps experiment to recruit families to be Peace Corps Volunteers. When you joined how big was your family? My husband Paul and I had four children in 1971. Daniel had just turned 11. Our daughter Nancy was 8; Peter turned 6 right after we were in, and Matthew turned 3 that August. . With a large family, why did you join? We happened to be in between jobs deciding what we should do next when we found out about the Peace Corps taking families. The Peace Corps was  something we were always interested in and decide why not.  It sounded like the perfect thing for us at the time and we felt up to the challenge of contributing in this manner. We also felt it would be a wonderful educational experience for our family. . Where were you sent as Volunteer? We . . .

Read More

Review of Wanderlust Satisfied by Kay Gillies Dixon (Colombia 1962-64)

Wanderlust Satisfied by Kay Gillies Dixon (Colombia 1962–64) Peace Corps Writers 159 Pages $12.00 (paperback), $3.99 (Kindle) 2013 Reviewed by Helene Ballmann Dudley (Colombia 1968–70, Albania/Slovakia 1997–99) One aspect of a good memoir is its ability to identify commonality in the human experience.  I thought Kay Gillies Dixon had borrowed my mother and my life for the first section of her book.  Kay, like myself, wanted something more than the rather limited path laid out for her to follow. Her roots were deep in western Pennsylvania, but her eyes were scanning the horizon for adventures unknown and definitely not understood in her small town. While Kay paints a vivid picture of growing up in Pennsylvania, including more than I ever wanted to know about Thanksgiving turkeys, she left me wanting more about her Peace Corps experience.  Perhaps it was because, as she writes “Our efforts in urban community development work . . .

Read More

Review: I Loved You More by Tom Spanbauer (Kenya 1969-71)

I Loved You More by Tom Spanbauer (Kenya 1969–71) Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts $18.95 466 Pages April 1, 2014 Reviewed by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) I began reading Tom Spanbauer’s new novel, I Loved You More, with high expectations. When I Googled him I had found that he was an acclaimed author with four previous novels. When I read the French flap of the beautifully produced book, I was even more intrigued.  It was a story of a triangle, two men and one woman, two of whom are straight and one a gay man who at times loved women. It was also partially set New York City in the 1980’s during the first confused whisperings of the AIDS plague, a time I remember all too well, when fear and later terror permeated all our lives. We didn’t know what was happening, why friends, lovers, neighbors, and family were getting . . .

Read More

Talking with Kevin Finch (Honduras 2004-06) Author of Paradise in Front of Me

[Paradise in Front of Me is a collection of inspirational, heartbreaking, and comical short stories about a Peace Corps couple’s experiences in a small  site in Central America called El Paraíso. The village is nestled in the mountains of southeast Honduras. Although its name means “paradise,” the town is a place of extreme poverty. In 2004, Kevin and Cristina Finch, were assigned to El Paraíso, and as PCVs focused on AIDS education and community development. Life in El Paraíso was at first a tough go, and Kevin and Cristina were about to ET when strange changes begin to transpire. Through a variety of characters, humorous events, and life-changing experiences, Kevin’s memoir describes how their lives were transformed. As Kevin writes, “Perhaps paradise does exist where one least expects.” Here is my interview with Kevin about his new book published by Peace Corps Writers.] Kevin, where are you from in the . . .

Read More

The Grownup Train by Chris Honore’ (Colombia 1967-69)

Chris Honore’ was born in occupied Denmark, during WWII. After the war, he immigrated to America. He went to public schools and then attended San Jose State University and the University of California, at Berkeley, where he earned a teaching credential, an M.A. and a Ph.D. After teaching high school English for two years, he joined the Peace Corps. He’s a freelance journalist based in Ashland, Oregon. His wife owns a bookstore on Main Street. His son is a cinematographer, living in Southern California. • THE GROWNUP TRAIN by Chris Honore’ They stood on the train platform, eyes narrowed, bodies angled to the right, looking down the track, waiting. A train had just passed through. Another would be along shortly. They were hardcore, their posture and dress conveying a self-conscious, determined insouciance: shoulders hunched, knees slightly bent, baggy denim shorts riding precariously low on their hips, their hair a shag . . .

Read More

The Peace Corps–#4 of 29 (Small Agencies) Best Place to Work in Government

Peace Corps Mission To help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women, promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served and promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans. Best Places to Work Ranking 2013 The Peace Corps: # 4 of 29 small agencies Top Five 1) Surface Transportation Board 2) National Endowment for the Humanities 3) Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service 4) The Peace Corps 5) Federal Retirement thrift Investment Board. Note: The Peace Corps ‘dropped’ in ‘Like Me’ from 81.5% in 2012 to 78.2% in 2013. C’mon everyone at HQ, start saying ‘hello’ on those elevators! Invite an RPCV to lunch! Smile at a HCN! More (much more) information about the Agency at: http://bestplacestowork.org/BPTW/rankings/overall/small

Read More

Copyright © 2022. Peace Corps Worldwide.